I love your recipes! Not only are they great, but I love the fact that you give
all the nutritionals. It is really helpful to someone who watches calorie and fat
intake. But how can I calculate nutritionals for my own recipes?

Recipe Ready

Dear Ready,

Thanks so much for the compliment -- and for emailing in that question,
because it's a good (and important) one. Calculating nutritional information
for recipes is actually a lot easier than you may think. It just requires a little
math (hopefully you have a good calculator) and some patience. If you are
any good at using Excel, that is a great way to organize your recipe
calculations (especially since Excel has a built-in calculator). All you need to
do is carefully record EXACTLY what you use to make your recipe (that
means the specific amounts of each ingredient). Then figure out the
nutritional info for each of the ingredients, either by using the info on the
package or looking up the food's info online in a database (my favorite place
to go is calorieking.com) -- this step requires your calculator, because you'll
need to figure out the info for the EXACT amount of each ingredient in your
recipe. Once you have all the nutritional info for EVERY ingredient, simply
add them all together, and then divide the totals by the number of servings
in your recipe, and VOILA -- you have your nutritional facts! It's not as
complicated as it sounds -- trust me -- and it's so worth doing. The only thing
that gets tricky about it is if you need to figure out how many calories are in
a tablespoon of something with a serving size that's given in ounces or cups.
So keep a handy conversion chart around to help make that part easier.
Good luck -- and let me know how it goes!

Hey, Hungry!

First of all, I must tell you how much I love this website!! I was hoping you
might have an idea for a low-cal Reuben sandwich. It is one of my all-time
faves, but I know the typical one at a sandwich shop is way too high in
calories. I have been doing Weight Watchers for two years and am down
eighty pounds. I would love to find a way to indulge in one of my favorite
things without spending a ton of calories on it. Can you help?

Seeking Reubens

Dear Seeking,

WOW -- congrats on your AWESOME weight loss. EIGHTY pounds! AMAZING!
Now on to your Reuben dilemma. Luckily, I have a few options for you. First,
there's our very own Turkey Reuben Sandwich, which was originally featured
in one of our emails last April. IT ROCKS. Click here for the recipe (and
you'll also find a couple more "manly meal" recipes there that are great).
Our Reuben only has 250 calories and a POINTS® value of 5*, and it's
INCREDIBLE. Now, if you happen to live near a Jason's Deli location (which,
unfortunately, I do not!) you should check out their Turkey Reuben -- it's
made with low-fat Swiss cheese and 98% fat-free turkey breast, and it has
under 450 calories (and a POINTS® value of 9*). I first had it while visiting
family in Memphis, and I fell in LOVE with it! It's HUGE, so you don't need to
eat the whole thing in one sitting either -- feel free to save half for later. Now
the key to making a guilt-free Reuben at home is to swap the high-calorie
fatty stuff (like butter, full-fat cheese, and regular salad dressing) for better
versions (like light buttery spread or spray butter, low-fat or fat-free cheese,
and low-calorie dressing). Go for lean meats (check the packaged deli meats
section of the store for low-fat versions) and a light bread of some sort (look
for one with 40 - 50 calories per slice and lots of fiber). Then indulge in the
guilt-free ingredients, like mustard, sauerkraut, and veggies like lettuce and
tomato. Hope this helps... and keep up the awesome WW lifestyle!

For links in this email go to:
http://www.hungry-girl.com/askhg/askhgdetails.php?isid=1344